Jane Wyman

  • My Favorite Spy (1942)

    My Favorite Spy (1942)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2021) Coming from the middle of the short, curious and still enjoyable film career of bandleader Kay Kyser, My Favorite Spy tries to jam his affable professorial persona into an espionage comedy… and generally succeeds. “Contrived” doesn’t start to describe the plotting circumlocutions that the film sets in motion in order to showcase Kyser’s talents in a spy movie, but it’s so outlandish that it works. Other things that work: Jane Wyman as a romantic interest, the very cute Ellen Drew, Ish Kabbible in a short comic appearance, a few band numbers, by-the-numbers suspense and, most of all, nebbish Kyser as a counter-spy. He’s not an ideal lead (too soft-spoken to deliver punchlines, too stiff for physical comedy), but that in itself becomes a bit of an endearing joke. I wouldn’t recommend this film to Kyser neophytes — he’s better introduced in other films, and much of My Favorite Spy’s fun is a complex interplay between the man propped up to become a movie star versus his undeniable talents as bandleader. If you’re a Kyser fan, though, this is one of his best films — RKO was clearly trying to make him a star, and the narrative is better than many of his other films.

  • A Kiss in the Dark (1949)

    A Kiss in the Dark (1949)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2021) Short and perfunctory, A Kiss in the Dark works best as a showcase for David Niven and Jane Wyman, as he plays a concert pianist who discovers he’s the owner of a slightly dilapidated apartment building in Manhattan. Investigating the situation, he comes to meet the eccentric tenants and finds himself captivated by the cutest of them all (Wyman, obviously). As a comedy film, it runs a bit long even at 87 minutes — the narrative arcs are familiar, from the easily-resolved romantic triangle to the workaholic-no-more theme to the bellowing tenant tortured into submission. (Wait, what? Well, yes — the film does suffer from a bit of protagonist-centred morality in how a tenant is cruelly sleep-deprived. You’d argue that he had it coming by punching the protagonist in the first place, but that only raises more disturbing questions as to why the film seems so fond of its characters frequently punching each other in the face and why the police aren’t brought in for assault charges.)  This is not sophisticated stuff, although Niven’s stereotypically British persona and Wyman’s attractiveness will make anyone overlook most of the film’s flaws. It’s also fun to see Broderick Crawford in a supporting role as a cranky-and-violent antagonist. Still, there simply isn’t enough in A Kiss in the Dark (not the best title!) to stay interesting. Despite the building’s 53 tenants, the film focuses on too few of them and pads its comic scenes with too much repetition. There’s some chemistry between the leads and it’s all too likable to dislike… but this is an average comedy as best, one that just happened to star compelling performers.

  • Johnny Belinda (1948)

    Johnny Belinda (1948)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, February 2020) The depiction of disability in Hollywood has changed quite a bit over the years, and Johnny Belinda squarely belongs to the old school inspirational category… with a few complications. There’s no going around how an able-bodied doctor ends up being the salvation of a deaf-mute woman. But there’s more to this film than just a so-noble story of a disabled person overcoming obstacles: as Johnny Belinda unspools, there’s an entire story about rape, rumour and eventually murder. The film is set in quiet bucolic seaside Nova Scotia—but shot in California. You can see how it was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, considering how much it sounds like an Oscar-bait film. Still, Johnny Belinda is not bad: the criminal subplot adds a lot to the film, and Jane Wyman turns out a convincing performance in the lead role, along with Lew Ayres as the doctor helping her. There are a bunch of issues in having an able-bodied man being the saviour, but the overall portrait is very sympathetic, especially for a 1940s film.